Her child, John (Kristoffer Tabori) is excluded from the activities of his peers because he is tall, blonde, handsome and an outsider. Linda’s morality is at odds with that of her new society. But Linda is not very smart with the Malthusian belt which prevents conception and Thomas abandons her in the wilderness near the savage camp where she is cared for until her child is born. He travels on holiday to the savage reservation with Linda Lysenko (Julie Cobb), one of his favourites. Pompous and tedious Thomas “Tomakin” Grambell (Keir Dullea, with the perfect face for science fiction) is the Assistant Director of the central hatchery. Henry Ford was the god of this society, his Model T Ford the holy symbol.

The production still adhered to Huxley’s caste system: There were the Alphas and the Betas the Gammas (“not too stupid and not too bright”) came in pairs and looked alike the Deltas also looked the same – and the lowest on the genetic scale were the mindless drugged Epsilons. The same sentiments were no doubt stirred by this MCA low-budget made-for-television movie which was loosely based on the novel, although Huxley purists would have probably loathed the 1980 interpretation where modern terminology and ideas were fused to the Huxley original. His concept of the way life might be horrified and amused his readers. It was a world in which pregnancy was outlawed, and citizens were required to engage in loveless sex, with narcotics used to ensure happiness in the population.

Aldous Huxley gave the world a chilling picture of genetic controls and behaviour conditioning in his 1932 novel Brave New World.

Brave new world 1998